Aganos
Aganos '''(ἀγανός') is an ancient war-golem that originated in Mycenaean Greece. A new character introduced in ''Killer Instinct (2013), Aganos is the fifteenth character of Killer Instinct 2013, and was the sixth character to be added during Season Two. Biography Appearance Being a golem, Aganos was originally composed completely of bronze, seen in its rusty green appearance. However, after so many years of existence, parts of it have been replaced with stones, bushes, and vines, such as its face(s), a hand and foot. In official art Aganos' right hand and left foot have been replaced with rocks, but in-game its poses are mirrored and either limbs can be made of rocks. It has a hunchbacked figure and enormous hands and feet when compared to the rest of its proportions. Its face resembles a traditional three-face Greek drama mask often used in theatres - and the three faces represent Aganos' creators: a warrior, an inventor, and a sorcerer; all of them sharing a set of four eyes. The middle two eyes glow a bright cyan color when it is active. When wielding a Peacemaker club, Aganos' left two eyes light up instead. The golem is absolutely massive in both width and height, standing over eight feet tall, taller than the previously-tallest character in the game, Glacius. Aganos' retro costume appears has its whole body and composed entirely of metal just like the other golems. Personality & Abilities Aganos, as a golem, has a relatively simple and limited personality. It is incredibly loyal to its old king, having honored his request to hunt Kan-Ra for thousands of years. Even the king’s final orders, to learn, have always been present in Aganos’ mind, and it continues to strive to learn about itself and the world around it. It can sense the emotions and fighting spirits of living things, having formed a strong bond with Thunder due to their many similarities. Aganos is an immense character, and due to its massive height and weight it has incredible strength. Besides its hard bronze armor, Aganos has also incorporated many boulders into its body. It can store stones in its chest to give itself added defense and weight, or use the stones as projectiles. It can also transform the stones into different shapes, whether it be large walls to trap his enemies or gigantic clubs called Peacemakers. Story Crafted by the greatest inventors, military minds, and sorcerers of the Mycenaean civilization, the war-golem known as Aganos, the last of its kind, has been a prized possession of warlords, power mongers, and kings; its violent history writ large across the battlefields of Europe and the Middle-East. As the ages wore on and the battles continued, so was a toll taken on the golem’s body. Its creators long dead, it was impossible to replace its worn and broken components. Piece by piece, battle by battle, the war-golem lost its original appearance, becoming forced to substitute its bronze for rocks and stone, bolts for vines and ropes. The golem felt nothing, thought of nothing. It only obeyed commands... until one king gave it a most unusual order. Instead of ordering the construct to kill or destroy, this king commanded it to learn, to think. He named it Aganos, “a person of gentle disposition”, in the hopes that it would grow beyond its previous use and into something that could choose how to act. While that simple command allowed Aganos free will, he remained loyal to the king out of respect and as repayment for liberating him from strict obedience. Years later, the king learned that his former vizier, the traitorous sorcerer Kan-Ra, had survived the flesh-eating curse that had been placed upon him and was delving ever deeper into the dark arts. The king asked Aganos to hunt down and destroy the evil sorcerer once and for all. Aganos accepted this task, and for centuries, he has hunted Kan-Ra across the globe, battling on numerous occasions around the world, yet neither has ever been able to destroy the other completely. Extended Story Peacemaker: Over three thousand years ago the legendary Mycenaean people flourished in Greece. Their thriving citadel stood high atop a hill, surrounded by a Cyclopean wall—a bastion made of enormous boulders so huge that men who came after believed only giants could have moved these rocks into place. The Mycenaean culture was rich with inventors, military minds…and sorcerers. And together these men and women crafted powerful warriors made of gears and bronze armor—hulking automatons that went to battle and crushed their enemies. At night these war-golems stood guard beneath the great walls they had built, as silent and still as graven figures carved in marble, their eyes glowing blue. But these creatures were sentient, and the most powerful among them bore a mask with three faces—each representing one of the people who had helped craft him: warrior, inventor and sorcerer. Embedded in his forehead was a crystal called the Eye of the Ancients: a relic that connected the war-golem to a power that stood outside the boundaries of this world—an invisible tether to the Astral plane. But then Mycenae, like all great civilizations before and after it, was brought low by its own devices. The culture fell into a state of decadence and decay, the ideals turned on themselves; and the automatons were caught up in this downfall…used against each other as Mycenae crumbled. Eventually, there was only one war-golem—the bearer of the Eye of the Ancients, which was handed down from vicious despot to petty tyrant as a display of power and a tool of war. Mycenae was finally overrun by nomadic raiders who came from the sea. The conquering general trapped the war-golem in a narrow canyon, hemming him in with a thousand warriors. Tying down the automaton, they pried loose the crystal in his mask, thus subduing him to their will. Down through the centuries this machine was put into action as a secret weapon by those that desired power or feared the loss of it. His eyes changed from their natural cyan color to a murderous red while under the sway of these evil men. Deployed in many battles as the turner of the tide, the unstoppable juggernaut was used as a cold, heartless tool of destruction, physically losing more and more of the spark of life that remained from his former union with the Eye of the Ancients. And over time Aganos’s bronze body started to break down. He replaced his parts with stones knitted together with vines, pieces of armor…anything else that he could find to make himself whole again. Five hundred years later he came into the possession of the King of Babylon—a wise and visionary man who saw that this being was much more than a mere automaton. The King put the Eye of the Ancients back in the war-golem’s forehead, and renamed him “Aganos” (meaning gentle/kind), teaching him about nature and the many wondrous ways the earth functioned. And the golem came to know about compassion and kindness. When the King’s vizier Kan-Ra plotted to kill the monarch, Aganos was the one who stopped the traitor from assassinating his beloved master. Kan-Ra was cursed by the King and exiled; and Aganos stayed by the ruler’s side watching as he grew into an old man. Learning that Kan-Ra was still alive and spreading chaos and death, the aged and dying King sent Aganos to hunt down the hated former vizier and execute him. Grateful to his master for all of his kindness, Aganos promised to fulfil his last wish. Time after time Aganos would catch up to Kan-Ra only to have the dark sorcerer escape. And then Aganos would retreat to a hidden grotto in the Mediterranean to mend, dreaming of the glory of Mycenae and his long vanished war-golem brethren. Aganos never gave up in his quest. Many centuries passed before he tracked Kan-Ra to the Andes mountains. Their age-old battle was interrupted by the Night Guard who defeated the sorcerer, burning him alive and locking his ashes in a vault. Aganos sat in silence for hundreds of years in the jungle, as still as a statue, trying to make his soul leave his corporeal form, thinking about the King of Babylon and his teachings. Moss and vines grew on him. Flowers sprung up like a crown upon his head. But he could not enter the Astral World. And then, once again, he was brought under someone else’s sway, for Ultratech found Aganos and devised a way to manipulate him; and ARIA made him fight for her cause. But he was freed from this modern-day slavery by the warrior-brave Thunder, and Aganos has once again taken up his quest to snuff out Kan-Ra after the sorcerer escaped from the Night Guard’s subterranean prison. But now he must decide if he will use his freedom to fight the Astral being Gargos—a creature spawned from the very wellsprings of power that supplied Aganos with his spark of life. Gameplay Combo Trait - Wall Crash: '''Aganos can place walls behind himself using No Escape or Trapped. Using Ruin, Shadow Ruin, or Dominate, Aganos can send his opponent flying backwards and smash them through up to four of these walls, each wall dealing a considerate amount of damage on hit. '''Instinct Mode - Peace Time: '''Aganos is given a regenerating Peacemaker club for the duration of Instinct Mode. This Peacemaker does not require a wall to be created beforehand. Command Attacks * '''No Escape - (LP+MP+HP) - Aganos slaps the ground, causing an impenetrable wall to rise behind the opponent. Consumes one chunk. Up to four walls can be present on the stage at a time. Walls can be broken by three wall splats or three hard knockdowns. * Trapped ''- (Back-LP+MP+HP) ''- Aganos slaps the ground, causing an impenetrable wall to rise behind himself. Consumes one chunk. Up to four walls can be present on the stage at a time. Walls can be broken by three wall splats or three hard knockdowns. * Peacemaker - (Back-LP+MP+HP, near a wall) - Aganos uproots a nearby wall and begins to wield it as a club called a Peacemaker. Peacemakers break after three hits, or after only one hit when thrown using Relinquish. ** Dislocate ''- (LP, with Peacemaker) - Aganos quickly swings his Peacemaker horizontally one way. ** '''Fracture '''- (MP, with Peacemaker) - Aganos wildly swings his Peacemaker horizontally the other way. ** '''Cripple' - (HP, with Peacemaker) - Aganos violently swings his Peacemaker vertically overhead. Hits overhead. ** Entrench - (Down+HP, with Peacemaker) - Aganos sweeps low with his Peacemaker. Hits low. Causes hard knockdown. ** Subdue ''- (P, with Peacemaker, midair) ''- Aganos swings his Peacemaker overhead midair. Recaptures opponents. ** Dominate ''- (LP+LK, with Peacemaker) - Aganos lifts his opponent into the air, then bats them away with his Peacemaker. Can cause the ''Wall Crash Combo Trait on opponents. ** Relinquish ''- (QCF+P, with Peacemaker) - Aganos quickly throws his Peacemaker forwards. Destroys oncoming projectiles. * '''Fortify Chunk' - (Back+HP) - Aganos grabs a chunk of earth from the stage and stores it in his chest for later use. Aganos can store up to four chunks in his chest, and each one makes his movements heavier and slower. Chunks act as armor and will be broken on hits, but allow Aganos to power through certain attacks and continue his onslaught. * War Path - (Forward+HK) - Aganos stomps the ground with one foot. Causes hard knockdown. ** Pressure - (HK again, after War Path) - If HK is hit again after War Path, Aganos will take a second step, then a third, and can theoretically continue stomping forever. Very risky without chunks for armor. * Throw '''- ''(Forward or back+LP+LK) ''- Aganos grabs the opponent by the head and slams them into the ground. Special Moves * '''Payload Assault ''- (QCF+P) - Aganos launches a chunk of stone from inside his chest. Light punch rolls the stone across the ground, Medium punch lobs it in an arc forwards, and Heavy punch has Aganos punch the chunk midair, splitting it into smaller fragments like a shotgun shot. Consumes one chunk. Acts as an ender, which can restore up to four chunks depending on ender level. * '''Ruin' ''- (QCB+K) -'' Aganos wheels back before delivering a hefty punch, sending the opponent flying backwards. Kick strength controls damage and range. Can cause the Wall Crash Combo Trait on opponents. Acts as an ender. * Pulverize - (QCB+P) - Aganos rotates his upper body like a helicopter, punching three times. Punch strength controls damage and speed. Acts as an opener, linker, and ender. * Natural Disaster - (QCF+K) - ''Aganos tucks himself into a ball shape and rolls forwards. Kick strength controls damage and range. Holding up during the attack will make Aganos perform a short hop, which is perfect for cross-ups. On block Aganos bounces backwards and is easily punished. Acts as an opener, linker, and ender. Shadow Moves * '''Shadow Payload Assault '''- (QCF+P+P) - Aganos smashes the ground with both fists, sending a wave of stones into the air; a second later they all come back down and hit seven times. Covers the entire screen, unavoidable and must be blocked. * '''Shadow Ruin' - (QCB+K+K) - Aganos wheels back before flying forwards and delivering a hefty punch, sending the opponent flying backwards. Passes through projectiles and has infinite armor. Can cause the Wall Crash Combo Trait on opponents. Acts as an ender. * Shadow Pulverize - (QCB+P+P) - Aganos rotates his upper body like a helicopter, punching five times. Throw invulnerable. Acts as an opener and linker. * Shadow Natural Disaster - (QCF+K+K) - Aganos tucks himself into a ball shape and rolls forwards, hitting five times. Holding the kick will let you rev in place and time your attack better before releasing. Acts as an opener and linker. Stage Aganos' stage in Killer Instinct (2013) is the Forgotten Grotto. It takes place in a cavern that opens out to the Mediterranean Sea. Near the fighting area are several ruined structures and statues of Greek design, including a half-sunken building and a staircase leading out of the cavern. In the distance, there lies the ruins of a large Greek city built on a small island just off the coast. A long bridge-like structure connects it to the mainland. During an Ultra Combo, some metallic artifacts are being sent into the sea in the background, which creates a metallic golem. Stage ULTRA - DEVASTATED: During an Ultra Combo, the victor would send his/her defeated opponent across the stage, and the metallic golem in the background casts a spell towards the defeated opponent, which causes him/her to encase into a stone statue; after turning into a stone statue, he/she turns into dusts from the wind leaving him/her to perish. Ultra Combo: 18-Hits Trivia: During the slow music due to characters not moving, the samples from the Main Theme will play. Gallery Killer Instinct (Xbox One) Char4.jpg|Silhouette teaser of Aganos, Season 2 trailer killerinstinctone-golem-tease-622.png|First look to Aganos face in Omen trailer Golem.PNG|Modeled teaser of Aganos, Omen trailer Aganos-Golem-Killer-Instinct-.jpg|Concept artwork of Aganos Aganostrailer.jpg|Aganos' trailer reveal Aganosthunderglacius.png|Aganos' height compared to Glacius and Thunder Aganosenter.PNG|Aganos in-game Aganos - The Forgotten Grotto.png|Aganos' Forgotten Grotto Aganosretro.jpg|Aganos' retro costume, depicting him when his body was still whole and composed entirely of metal Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 1.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 1 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 2.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 2 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 3.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 3 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 4.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 4 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 5.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 5 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 6.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 6 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 7.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 7 Killer Instinct Season 2 - Aganos Loading Screen 8.png|Aganos' Story Mode Loading Screen 8 Trivia * Aganos was affectionately referred to as "Broccoli Man" by fans prior to its release, due to its teaser silhouette's large and bushy appearance. ** This is referenced by Killer Instinct composer Mick Gordon in one of his music preview Vines, which is captioned with "μπρόκολο", translating from Greek to "broccoli". ** As an additional reference to the name, during the official Aganos livestream, a bowl of broccoli could be seen on the developer's desk. * Aganos' intro is similar to the intro of Marvel's golem-like superhero "The Thing" in the game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. * Aganos is the only character that has its in-game model mirrored when facing left or right. This is due to its large stone arm that is used in most of its attacks. Category:Characters Category:Killer Instinct 2013 Characters Category:Neutral Characters Category:Good Characters